After losing a ludicrous law suit, Microsoft have told the W3C that they're going to make some changes to Internet Explorer.

 

"In the near term, Microsoft has indicated to W3C that they will very soon be making changes to its Internet Explorer browser software in response to this ruling," a statement issued by Steven R Bratt, W3C's chief operating officer, said.

"These changes may affect a large number of existing Web pages," the statement continued. "W3C does not yet have any indication of what action, if any, other vendors of Web tools might take."

The Register reports, "According to W3C, members of the consortium met in California on 19 August to discuss the consequences of the ruling, which effectively said that Microsoft had used Eolas-patented technology such as plug-ins, applets and scriptlets in Internet Explorer.

Were the offending portions of the software to be removed, it would significantly alter the way IE works and countless Web sites would be forced to change their own to accommodate changes in IE."

(Regular readers will know that we are never slow to point the finger of blame at Microsoft for the latest virus attacks, for example - but in this case, MS are completely the innocent party. A judge upheld a ridiculous patent claim - almost as stupid as when British Telecom tried to claim ownership of Hyperlinks.)